Breastfeeding, Medela Pump In Style
2007-03-02 00:51:00
Breastfeeding. I do believe it is the best for a baby, especially a preemie. Now when I found out I was pregnant, I thought I might try it & as the pregnancy wore on, I decided probably not. Then all of a sudden my son was here & I had to decide fast. I decided to give it a try. He was in the NICU & way too small to latch on, so I had to pump the milk out and that is what I did for the next 18 months. Once he was bigger, I did latch him on, mainly towards the end of his hospital stay & the first week he was home. The first week I triple fed: latched him on, then bottle fed to make sure he had gotten enough, and then pumped the rest out. Tell you what, that was a pain in the ass. So I decided to pump & then bottle feed. So much easier. I could pump while checking email or catch up on reading. If need be, somebody else could feed my son and he was still getting the benefits of breastmilk. I think it really worked out great. I did supplement with formula 2 feedings a day just as a fallbac
Read more: Style
Welcome, Preemies, RSV
2007-02-25 22:15:00
Welcome to the Ice Princess's Parent Talk blog!This blog will focus on baby / toddler parenting tips and product reviews.I am the proud parent of a son who was a preemie. He was born at 31 weeks. His early arrival was a complete surprise. I had been to the doctor in the afternoon for a checkup. That night, my water broke. Spent the next 2 days hooked up to magnesium to stop the contractions, so that I could receive several steroid shots to help my son's lungs develop. I came off the magnesium and that night the contractions resumed. 4 1/2 hours later my son was born, healthy, but small. 5 weeks in the NICU and then he came home. Today he is a very happy, active 2 year old.2 books which are a must read if you are the parent of a preemie: The Preemie Parents' Companion: The Essential Guide to Caring for Your Premature Baby in the Hospital, at Home, and Through the First Years and Preemies: The Essential Guide for Parents of Premature Babies.Do all the reading you can. It is very impor
Read more: Welcome
Unsolicited Pregnancy Comments
2007-03-03 18:50:00
Back when I was pregnant, people made some really stupid comments to me. In the beginning it was 'why aren't you wearing maternity clothes'. I'm a small person & I wasn't about to spend money I didn't have on clothes I was only going to wear for a few months. Instead, I just bought bigger sized regular clothes. Worked fine for me and was much cheaper. The stupid remark that took the cake was towards the end of my pregnancy when one of my coworkers said "you look bigger today than you did yesterday". Yeah, real nice.Anyways, if you're pregnant & people keep saying dumb things to you, you might appreciate this article.
Read more: Unsolicited
, Pregnancy
, Comments
Breastfeeding, Brain Development
2007-03-07 02:28:00
Did you know breastmilk not only boosts a babies immune system, but it also aids in brain development? It makes kids smarter and the longer they receive breastmilk during the first year, the higher their IQ. The smallest of preemies who have been breastfed also require less special education classes when they get to school. It's really amazing. Formulas try to replicate the beneficial parts of breastmilk, but breastmilk is a pretty complex substance. Every woman's milk is different and it's composition also varies by time of day and amount of time elapsed since giving birth. Apparently the longer you breastfeed, the more fat content produced in the milk to adapt to the caloric needs of a growing baby.There's an interesting chapter in this book: What's Going On In There? How the Brain
and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life by Lise Eliot, about breastmilk and brain development. In fact this whole book is very interesting. I read it once and I need to make time to read it a
Read more: Development
Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), baby ear infections
2007-03-10 01:45:00
My son ended up having Gastroesophageal Reflux
Disease (GERD). It was just terrible. You never knew when he was going to toss up what he had just eaten. Then when he did, he had to be refed. He tends to be a slow eater too, even now as a toddler he pokes, so it was a pain in the butt. His doctor recommended adding 2tbs of rice cereal to his breastmilk to help thicken it. I think it helped some, but it mainly just gave him some extra calories, which being a preemie, he needed. Since I formula fed twice a day, his doctor also recommended Enfamil A.R. Lipil. It's a thicker formula designed for babies with reflux. It also seemed to help with his reflux.To reduce the amount of vomiting, I would also burp my son every couple of ounces. If I didn't, the chances he would burp up what he had just eaten increased. At one point, I also fed him less, more frequently. He's always been on a schedule, even now as a toddler. As a baby, he would eat every 3 hours, so I tried feeding him every 2 1/2
Mommy Break Time, Toddler Congestion Remedies
2007-03-13 03:01:00
Found an interesting message board / parenting community called Mommy
Break
Time. I just thought it was a message board, but it appears there is more to it than just that. Here's an excerpt from the latest update sent:Each person is a Newborn when they first join. As Newborns you only see the Welcome Center and all the boards in there. We actually have alot more stuff here. Once you've posted 20 posts in the Welcome Center your rank will go up to Baby. You will then see TONS more boards! You can then go forth and start posting on the new boards you now have axcess to. When you reach 75 post your rank will go up to Toddler. Thats when you can join in on swaps, be added to the pen-pals list, enter photo contests, and be eligible for Member Of The Month. We have ways to win stuff each month. We have a Virtual Lotto going on this month.My son is a bit congested and refuses to let me help him blow his nose, so I'm in pursuit of some home remedies. I just gave him a bath & the warm steam
Read more: Congestion
, Remedies
Baby bottles and reflux, Bottle brushes
2007-03-16 01:36:00
When you have a baby with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), I think the type of bottle you use, can reduce the amount of spit up. The kind I used was from Walmart. It had an angled neck and a triflow nipple. You could change the flow rate of the bottle based on the age of the baby. The nipple was also smaller than most, which was what my son liked the best. I think the triflow nipple and angled bottle helped reduce the amount of spit up, but if I had to go through it again, I would probably try different brands to see what worked best. Many brands are advertised to reduce air. Dr. Brown's is one brand I would try. Google searching gives that brand good reviews for helping with reflux.If you buy a bottle brush at Walmart, I recommend the Parent's Choice brand. The other brand they carry I received as a gift. You have to make sure the brush is wet, otherwise it's too stiff when you first insert it into the bottle. It's also a tight fit for some bottles. After 2 years of use, my
Read more: brushes
, Baby bottles
Disposable diapers
2007-03-20 00:56:00
Disposable diapers
. Do they ever end? Especially those first few months. I would change my son every 3 hours, right before he ate and any other time as needed. I guess about 8-12 per 24 hours. The NICU used Pampers, so that's what I stuck with when he came home. Got pretty expensive after a few months. Especially since I had a low cash flow. I took 3 months off, with the last 6 weeks unpaid. Once that ended I went back to work 20 hours per week for quite a while. With unexpected medical bills on top of a mortgage and car payment and not much help from hubby, I had to start cutting corners.That's when I decided to give cheap diapers a try. You know what? They work just as good as the expensive diapers. I wished I'd tried them sooner. I went to Walmart and first tried the cheapest diapers they had, Parent's Choice. They worked great during the day when my son's diaper was being changed every few hours. Not the greatest for at night though. There was leakage. I went back to Walmart a
Read more: Disposable
Diaper Rash
2007-03-22 02:42:00
The day my son was released from the NICU, he developed a diaper rash, so they prescribed Nystatin, since serious diaper rashes such as his are usually caused by yeast infections. Babies have pretty sensitive skin, so you need to be careful what you put on their skin. Turns out my son's skin responds best to diaper rash creams which are not petroleum based. Zinc oxide based products, such as Desitin, seem to work the best for us. I put it on him every night just for diaper rash prevention. If I miss a night or two, he starts getting a rash. Pretty weird.Shortly after my son started on solid foods, he developed a rash on his neck underneath his chin. I had some Nystatin left, so I used that. The rash cleared up, but a couple months later he got another rash. His doctor recommended putting corn starch and baby powder on it. That didn't really seem to help. His doctor then gave us some Eucerin cream. That by itself didn't help either. Finally, I tried a combination. At night I would pu
Read more: Diaper
Teething, Hyland Teething Tablets
2007-03-24 15:41:00
Teething. My son has done remarkably well dealing with his teething. With the first few teeth he got, several times he woke up crying with a fever. Several other times he would just wake up in hysterics. The majority of the time though he would wake up crying, but would then go right back to sleep.When he would wake up with a fever, I would give him Children's Tylenol every 4 hours for 24 hours. That was usually enough to get rid of the fever and get him back to normal.For the times he didn't have a fever, but was in pain, I would give him 2 Hyland teething tablets. They are homeopathic tablets and are amazing. I don't know if they taste bad or what, but it was always such a struggle to put them in my son's mouth. Once they were in his mouth, he would scream even worse. I had serious doubts the first time I gave them to him. Luckily they dissolve very quickly. 5 minutes after taking the teething tablets, my son would be back to normal. It was really amazing to watch the transformat
Read more: Teething
, Tablets
Feeding Issues
2007-03-28 04:01:00
Shortly after my son turned a year old, he started refusing to let me feed him. I tried just letting him feed himself, but he ended up eating hardly anything. Then I tried putting food he liked on his tray, such as cheerios, and tried feeding him while he picked at the food on his tray. At first that worked pretty good. He caught on quick though, so then I would try singing to him, making him laugh. I pretty much tried to do just about everything I could think of to get him to open his mouth, so I could shove a spoonful of food in. That went on for a while until finally he seemed to be feeding himself an adequate amount.Many days though, he would still eat hardly anything. I remember one day at lunch, all he ate was a couple of crackers.I tried giving him food I knew he liked. I tried making new things. I would fix him a meal or snack and if he wouldn't eat it, then I would try giving him something different. I wouldn't try more than a couple times though. It just got very frustratin
Read more: Feeding
, Issues
Baby Carriers
2007-03-31 01:49:00
If you purchased an Infantino SlingRider Infant Carrier, you better check out this link. A recall of this product was just announced. Apparently:"The plastic slider on the carrier's fabric strap can break. This can cause the strap supporting the carrier to release and infants to fall out of the carrier".There have been reports of babies falling out of the carrier. One baby suffered a fractured skull. Pretty scary.When my son was a baby, I bought one of the carriers from Walmart. I don't remember the brand, but it was a cheaper version of the Baby Bjorn, which is a top rated, very popular baby carrier. The carrier I bought would hold up to 25 pounds and could be worn on the front or the back. It was very useful. When my son wanted to be held, it freed up my hands to do other things, but kept us close enough to keep him content. I'm a programmer, so I spend the majority of my day in front of the computer. Well, the baby carrier was really handy for when I needed to do computer work. I
Potty Training
2007-04-03 04:03:00
My son is 27/29 months today. Our big goal for this year is to hopefully get him potty trained during the day by the time he is 3. Last month I bought the potty chair. I just got the simple 4 in 1 model. There were other potty chairs which played music when flushed, but I didn't want my son to think it was a toy. Normal toilets don't sing when you flush, so I didn't want his to. The seat on the other models looked hard too.My son immediately knew what the potty chair I bought was for, dropped his drawers, sat on it, got up, checked it out, sat back down. He actually did pee a little bit. The second time we tried, he did the same thing. The third time, he decided the toilet bowl part of the potty was a hat. After that, he hasn't cooperated. I gave up for a few weeks and I think after Easter, I'm going to try again. I've got to do a little reading and see if I can find some good tips.So far I've read "It's Time!: A Potty Training
Guide"By Karen Pillari Penner. I guess it's worth
Read more: Potty Training
Fever
2007-04-06 04:23:00
Well, my son woke up crying with a fever of 102.5 this morning. I gave him a dose of Children's Tylenol and the fever came down. Shortly before the next dose was due, the fever came back up. Gave him the next dose and he went in for a nap. Well, when he woke up, he had a temperature of 104. Temperatures are always higher in the late afternoon and evening though. He's been pretty mellow all day, not crying or anything, just taking it easy laying down or riding on his toy truck. He's usually very active and doesn't sit still for very long, so when he does, you know something's wrong. Anyways, after dinner, I gave him a cooler than normal bath. Shortly before I put him to bed, his temperature was a little over 102. I gave him a dose of Tylenol, so let's hope he's back to normal in the morning.I'm hoping the cause of the fever is teething. He developed a fever with his first couple of teeth, but not the rest. He has all of his teeth except for the last 4 second year molars. He star
Read more: Fever
Fever
2007-04-11 01:57:00
Well, my son's fever appears to be more than just teething. Friday morning he woke up vomiting. Took him to the doctor's where they did a throat culture due to large, red tonsils and started him on amoxicillin just to be safe, due to the Easter weekend. Saturday, his fever was down and he appeared to feel better. Sunday morning his temperature was back up to 102 though. The Children's Motrin his doctor recommended brought the fever back down, but then he started having diarrhea. Twice Sunday and twice Monday. For a child still in diapers, diarrhea is not a good thing. Trust me. Monday his doctor's office called and said the throat culture was normal and to stop the amoxicillin, which we did. Monday and today, his fever seems to have subsided and his appetite has picked up a bit. Monday I did give him 2 doses of Motrin, just to be safe. Today, he hasn't had any Motrin and his temperature is holding steady around 98. I'm hoping the diarrhea was caused by the amoxicillin. I don't k
Read more: Fever
Chocolate and Happy Babies
2007-04-14 00:33:00
Fortunately, my son is now back to feeling normal. Thank goodness. Don't know what it was. Guess it was just a virus. Anyways, glad he's back to acting like a 2 year old.:)I do have to admit, he is the happiest 2 year old I've ever met. He does have his screaming moments, but he's definitely not a brat. He's very good natured. He was also a very happy baby. People used to comment on how happy he was. Don't know if it's just his nature or if eating chocolate while I was pregnant helped out too. After lunch, I've always eaten a mini chocolate candy bar. I just love chocolate. When I became pregnant with him, I continued eating a piece of chocolate after lunch. So one day, I was at an ob appointment, reading a magazine and came across an article about a study which was done on pregnant women who ate chocolate had happy babies. Here's a link to an article about it. It's certainly worth a try. Eating some yummy chocolate in exchange for a happy baby. Hey, it's worth a shot. Just
Read more: Chocolate
, Happy
, Babies
LeapFrog Magic Moments Learning Seat
2007-04-15 23:25:00
A swing and/or bouncer are essential items when you have a baby. Why? Because you just can't hold on to them all the time and you can't just leave them in the crib/bassinet doing nothing either. Babies need stimulation just like everyone else. If a baby is not kept entertained, then they will most likely start crying in an effort to get the attention they seek.My son was such a happy baby and is such a happy toddler. I really think one of the reasons why is I provide him with a stimulating environment, which means interesting toys, books and yes, television shows (this will be discussed in another post in the near future).One of the items I bought for my son when he was a baby was a bouncer. I didn't buy the typical bouncer. Instead, I went with Leap Frog's Magic
Moments
Learning
Seat. My son spent lots of time in this, probably a bit too much.lol It was definitely a great buy though. He loved it.A mirror is directly in front of the baby so he can look at himself. (Although at this
Tiny Love Gymini Super Deluxe playmat
2007-04-18 03:59:00
Another essential item to keep a baby amused is the playmat. The one we used was the Tiny Love Gymini Super
Deluxe
playmat. Really nice playmat. There is a nice sized mirror for the baby to look into. Several different toys and rings hang down for the baby to swat at or grasp. The toys all have different features, textures and shapes, which stimulate the babies senses. The elephant is my favorite. You pull the tail and the elephant vibrates. The other animals are a bird, giraffe, and monkey. They are nice plush toys. The playmat also plays music, either nursery songs or 10 continuous minutes of Mozart. As the music plays, lights flash. The playmat is very easy to wash and folds up nicely for storage.The Tiny Love Gymini Super Deluxe playmat is definitely well worth the money.
Alec Baldwin
2007-04-21 00:19:00
I don't usually post about celebrity gossip, but this is celebrity parenting gossip, so I suppose it fits my blog. By now some of you may have heard about the phone call Alec Baldwin
left his daughter, Ireland, who's mother is Kim Basinger. Alec and Kim and fought terribly over the years. Verbal abuse, not sure about physical, major custody battle over their daughter. Apparently they have joint custody, although she lives with Kim on the west coast, while Alec lives in New York. Anyways, Alec called his daughter. Apparently she wasn't home, so he left an extremely nasty voicemail. I just can't believe the things he said to his daughter. That man should have all visitation rights taken away & be de-spermed to ensure he never has anymore children. I can only imagine the permanent damage he has inflicted on his poor daughter.Here is the full transcript, which I found here.Transcript:“Hey I wanna tell you something okay, and I wanna leave a message for you right now because again its
Diaper Genie
2007-04-26 02:43:00
Ok. One of the prerequisite items when you have a baby is the Diaper
Genie
. I have a cousin on her 4th baby and she said this is the first time she's used a Diaper Genie. I couldn't believe it. Basically the Diaper Genie is an enclosed garbage which takes rolls of odor absorbing plastic. The refill roll sits at the top inside the Diaper Genie and has one knotted end. You push the diaper down into the plastic, close the Diaper Genie lid and turn the dial on the top of the Diaper Genie. The plastic twists around the diaper and locks in the odor. It does a fairly decent job.Having to keep buying the refills is a pain in the butt, but it's much better than smelling dirty diapers all the time. There have been times where I've ran out of the refill and had to go almost a week before buying a new one. I stuck a plastic bag in the Diaper Genie and put the diapers in that. The refill's are definitely necessary as the smell gets pretty ripe after a day or two.I did discover Lysol works real
Paris Hilton goes to jail
2007-05-05 04:30:00
Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been a bit busy and under the weather. I'm going to sort of go off topic. Did you hear Paris
Hilton
is going to jail? I know who cares. Apparently she got lucky with 45 days, it could have been 90 days. She certainly needs to grow up. From the sounds of it, her mother does too. Apparently during court her mother laughed and had an outburst. Nancy Grace of CNN made a good point. The mother was aghast that her daughter was going to jail. But why is she going to jail? For reckless driving, driving under the influence. How many accidents and people are killed by people driving under the influence? Tons and tons. Major tragedies. There was a lawyer on Nancy Grace who said there are far worse people who should be sent to jail, that Paris Hilton
hasn't harmed anyone. You know what? She hasn't harmed anyone YET. If you're continuously driving under the influence, it's only a matter of time before someone does get hurt. Let's put a stop to the rec
Potty Training con't
2007-05-20 10:07:00
Sorry for the lack of updates. I like to post at least once a week, but have just been too exhausted too. Hopefully some energy will return in the next few weeks.Anyways, my son's potty training is coming along fairly well. We're taking it very slowly. I was actually planning to wait until early June when he's actually 2 1/2 to get started. Suprisingly enough, one day a few weeks ago, out of the blue, he said potty, went out on to the deck and completely stripped. Shirt, pants, diaper, socks, everything. Then he peed on the deck. I let him go, just to see what he was doing. It was interesting. For the next several days, he kept doing the same thing a couple of times a day. This time he used his potty I brought out on the deck. Unfortunately, the weather cooled off and he quit going. The weather did warm up a few days ago and he peed on the deck in his potty again. He's also been interested in going on the toilet, but hasn't succeeded yet. I think in a couple weeks, he'll definite
Read more: Training
, Potty Training
Coffee
2007-07-04 12:15:00
About a year after my son was born and I was almost finished with pumping, I decided to become a flavored coffee drinker. Just a cup or two a day though, didn't want to overdo it. Definitely helped me realize how people get through the day on little sleep. I need at least 8 or 9 hours, but I know people who get by on 5 or 6 hours of sleep. Lots of coffee, that's how. Well, now that #2 is on the way, I've had to give up my couple of cups of coffee a day. Which btw, is the reason for the lack of posts, just haven't had the ambition to post. Anyways, late afternoon is when I miss coffee the most. Apparently a cup or two is safe, but during the first trimester, it made me nauseous and gave me a headache, so I'm temporarily giving it up. I've been looking into decaf though. I looked in Walmart and didn't see any flavored decaf coffee. Hannaford did have a Hazelnut decaf in an odd brand, which I may try. I decided to turn to the internet. I've only begun searching, but I did find an
Read more: Coffee
Choosing a Baby Name
2007-07-13 20:54:00
I had an ultrasound yesterday. Unfortunately there's still uncertainty as to the babies gender. I was hoping to get definite confirmation, so I wouldn't have to think of a boys name and a girls name. Oh well.Naming a baby is hard since it's so important as it stays with the person forever. Name meanings may also mold a person's identity.Here are a few tips to remember when choosing a baby name:1. Don't choose a name just to please someone else. It's your babies name, not theirs.2. Think about how a strange name may impact the babies future.3. Consider the initials of the baby name you are considering.4. Check your family tree to make sure people won't be confused if someone else already has that name.5. Be careful of being too creative and be mindful of creative spellings as it may be hard on the child when he gets to school.6. Make sure the name is a mutual choice between you and your partner.Here are a couple of links to top baby name sites: Popular baby namesTop 100 Names of
Work at Home With Make Money Online in Blog
2007-07-11 13:43:00
Work at Home With Make Money
Online in Blog. It has lots of money making ideas for people who want to work at home and make money online. It offers three (3) backlinks to your websites and/or blogs if you link to its blog from your new or old posts.
Jill Hennessy expecting second child
2007-08-14 17:23:00
Just want to say Congratulations! to Jill Hennessy
, who is expecting her second child
, a boy, with husband Paolo Mastropietro She is almost 6 months pregnant. The new arrival will be joining big brother Marco, who is 4.In the article she talks about taking so long to announce it. Well, I feel the same way, especially after my son was born 9 weeks early. Number 2 is on the way and I'll be really relieved when it's out and I know it'll be ok. After having a preemie, this pregnancy is considered high risk, so if something goes wrong, I just don't want half the world knowing. Unfortunately, I have dumbass relatives who inadvertently find out and then feel the need to gossip about it, and then see me in person and don't have a single nice thing to say to me. Not even a simple congratulations. Now I know why I stay home all the time and avoid people.Jill Hennessy
Jenna Elfman gives birth
2007-07-30 17:18:00
Congrats to Jenna
Elfman
on the birth
of her first child, Story Elias on July 23, 7 lbs. 2 oz. Jenna played Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg from 1997-2002.In need of a new cell phone? Check out this site for some of the newest phones on the market.Have you ever tasted a good cup of gourmet coffee? Chances are you haven't!
Read more: Jenna Elfman
A quick, easy, great tasting meal
2007-08-17 19:08:00
I recently discovered a really good, really easy dinner: Campbell Supper Bakes. They sell for $2.42 at Walmart. I tried the cheesy chicken and pasta dinner. It was delicious and very quick to make. All I had to do was supply a couple of boneless chicken breasts. It takes about 5 minutes to prep and about a half hour to cook. A quick, easy, great tasting dinner for under $5.00. You can't beat that.Amazon Grocery
Jenny McCarthy: Louder than Words
2007-09-20 17:11:00
So yesterday I was watching Oprah and Jenny
McCarthy
was the guest. She was talking about autism and her new book, Louder Than Words
: A Mother's Journey in Healing Autism. Apparently at 2 1/2 her son, Evan, started having seizures and was diagnosed with autism. She believes the autism was caused by the MMR shot he received. This is a common belief. Autism is usually diagnosed around the same time the MMR shot is given. It is a pretty controversial topic. One thing is for sure. Autism is on the rise. 1 in 100 children are affected by it. Pretty scary.Anyways, Jenny's book should be a good read for those interested.More Jenny McCarthy
Celebrity Baby Scoop
2007-09-14 19:12:00
Was surfing the web today and found an interesting site about celebrity babies. It gives the latest gossip about celebs and their kids & also tells who's expecting and when. Good read.celebrity babies
Read more: Celebrity
, Scoop
|
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